CTV advertising: the battle between Magnite and The Trade Desk, explained simply

If you’ve ever used Netflix, Disney+, Roku or any smart TV, you’ve seen CTV (connected TV) advertising. These are the ads that appear during your favourite streaming shows. But have you ever wondered what happens behind that ad?

It isn’t as simple as traditional TV. Behind the scenes there’s a technological auction that lasts milliseconds, an invisible marketplace where ad space is bought and sold. This marketplace is called programmatic advertising.

Today, in this hidden world, a strategic battle is under way between two giants: The Trade Desk (TTD), the largest “buyer” of advertising on behalf of brands, and Magnite, the largest “seller” of ad space on behalf of publishers (such as Netflix or Paramount).

This isn’t just a technical rivalry. It’s a fight over who will control the future of CTV advertising, a market worth billions (for an analysis of how the phenomenon is growing in Italy, you can read this piece on CTV advertising in Italy). And the moves being made today will change the way we watch TV tomorrow.

Let’s look at what’s happening, why Magnite isn’t worried, and what all this means for marketers and for people who simply watch TV.

The basics: who are the “buyers” (DSPs) and the “sellers” (SSPs)?

To understand the battle, you need to know the two armies. Imagine online advertising as a huge real-time auction.

1. The sellers (SSP – supply-side platform):
   • Who are they? Platforms such as Magnite.
   • What do they do? They help publishers (websites, streaming apps, TV channels) sell their ad space at the best possible price.
   • A simple analogy: Think of an auctioneer. The publisher (e.g. Netflix) entrusts its inventory (the ad slots to be shown) to Magnite (the auctioneer), which runs the auction to get the highest return.
2. The buyers (DSP – demand-side platform):
   • Who are they? Platforms such as The Trade Desk (TTD).
   • What do they do? They help brands (e.g. Coca-Cola, Nike) buy that ad space as efficiently as possible, to reach the right people at the right time.
   • A simple analogy: Think of an agent who goes to the auction on behalf of a wealthy collector. The Trade Desk (the agent) is instructed to buy the best slots at the best price for its clients (the brands).

For years DSPs and SSPs worked together: the auctioneer (Magnite) sold to the agent (TTD). Now things are changing.

The Trade Desk’s move: cutting out the middleman

In 2022 The Trade Desk launched an initiative called OpenPath. The idea, on the face of it, is simple: “Why should I go through the auctioneer (Magnite/SSP) if I can talk directly to the owner of the inventory (the publisher)?”

Jeff Green, TTD’s charismatic CEO, said that OpenPath creates a “fast lane”. It lets advertisers bypass SSPs, with the promise of greater transparency and lower costs.

TTD also began using a very loaded word to describe SSPs: “resellers”.

This was no accident. From an SEO and marketing point of view, calling a partner a “reseller” means belittling it. It paints it as a mere middleman that adds a cost (a “tax”) without adding real value. TTD’s move is clear: telling the market “You don’t need them, come straight to me”.

Magnite’s calm response: “It’s not that easy”

Many expected panic from Magnite and the other SSPs. Instead, the response from Michael Barrett, Magnite’s CEO, was surprisingly calm, almost dismissive.

Barrett called TTD’s predictions “completely wrong”. Why?

His reasoning is crucial to understanding the market. Selling advertising, especially complex CTV advertising, isn’t like selling a ticket. It’s an incredibly complex job called yield optimisation.

The right analogy: Selling ad space isn’t like selling a kilo of apples (where the price is fixed). It’s like managing the bookings for an entire hotel.

You have to decide whether to sell a room today for €100 or wait until tomorrow to sell it for €200 (at the risk of it staying empty). You have to manage direct bookings, bookings from Booking.com, from travel agencies, groups, special offers. It’s work that takes technology, data and experienced people.

Barrett argues that:

1. Publishers can’t do it alone: Netflix or Paramount don’t want to (and can’t) handle this complexity in-house. It’s an enormous cost.
2. TTD just shifts the costs: Even if TTD bypasses Magnite’s fee, TTD itself charges fees to manage that side of the sale. In the end, Barrett says, the cost to the publisher doesn’t change.
3. Magnite offers more value: Magnite isn’t a mere “reseller”. It offers technology (such as the SpringServe platform) that actively manages the auction, guarantees quality, fights fraud and optimises revenue.

The real battlefield: why CTV advertising is the holy grail

This war isn’t about banners on websites. The real battlefield, the multi-billion prize, is CTV advertising.

The world is moving from cable TV to streaming. That means huge advertising budgets are on the move. Whoever controls the technical “plumbing” that delivers ads to Netflix, Roku, LG and Warner Bros. will control the future of advertising.

And here Magnite has a strategic advantage.

It has established partnerships with all the names that matter. When you watch an ad on Netflix (on the ad-supported plan) or on the Roku Channel, it’s very likely that Magnite’s technology handled it. The CTV advertising market is booming, and anyone trying to understand how it works knows the stakes are extremely high.

Magnite demonstrated this strength in its recent financial results (Q3 2025): impressive growth of +18% in CTV advertising (excluding traffic acquisition costs). This signal tells the market: “Despite TTD’s OpenPath, we’re growing”.

Magnite’s secret weapon: artificial intelligence

To stay relevant, having the right connections isn’t enough. You need the best technology. And today, the best technology means artificial intelligence.

The Trade Desk has its own AI (called Koa) to optimise buying. But Magnite responded with a brilliant move: it recently acquired Streamr.ai.

Streamr.ai isn’t just any AI. It uses generative AI to help small and medium-sized businesses (the ones that buy ads on Facebook or Google today) create and launch CTV advertising campaigns.

This is a masterstroke. It makes CTV advertising (traditionally complex and expensive) accessible to thousands of new advertisers. By building this AI into its ClearLine product, Magnite isn’t just defending its territory, it’s creating a whole new market.

What does this battle mean for publishers and advertisers? 3 key lessons

All this technical duelling may seem remote, but it has practical consequences for anyone working in digital.

1. For advertisers (businesses): TTD’s promise to “cut out the middlemen” is tempting. But the reality is that quality CTV advertising (on the big channels) lives on platforms such as Magnite. Trying to cut costs could mean losing access to the best inventory or losing the optimisation efficiency that SSPs provide.
2. For publishers (streaming channels, websites): The OpenPath idea (direct management) may look like a way to earn more. But it comes with huge operational and technology costs. Most publishers will always prefer to rely on a specialist technology partner (such as Magnite) to maximise revenue, rather than build an entire in-house team from scratch.
3. Value matters more than cost: This battle teaches us a fundamental lesson: in programmatic advertising, the winner isn’t whoever costs least, but whoever adds most value. Magnite is betting that its optimisation technology, its AI and its exclusive partnerships are a value The Trade Desk can’t replicate simply by “bypassing” it.

Conclusion: who will win the war for CTV advertising?

There won’t be a single winner. The CTV advertising market is too vast and complex.

The Trade Desk will keep pushing for transparency and direct connections, consolidating its enormous power on the buy side.

Magnite, for its part, has shown that it isn’t a mere “reseller” but an essential technology partner for the streaming ecosystem. Its numbers, its AI acquisitions and its strategic partnerships (Netflix, Roku) show that it is firmly in charge of the “supply” side.

As Michael Barrett put it: “Programmatic advertising is a game of fine balances. Whoever manages to balance technology, partnerships and innovation will win the game.”

For now, Magnite is playing that game extremely well, showing that to manage complex and lucrative CTV advertising there is still a desperate need for sophisticated intermediaries.